U.S. Embassy Addis Ababa

Media release

On the 3rd and 4th June 2016, 11 world class ballet dancers from America, Australia, Italy, Great Britain, South Africa, Cuba and Brazil will grace the stages of City Hall and the Ethiopian National Theatre for the first time in Addis Ababa.  The program is being sponsored by the Embassies of the United States and Australia along with Jupiter International hotel, BGI, the South African company Faxfx, East African Bottling and a handful of private sponsors.

The dancers will be arriving in Addis Ababa from the 29 May 2016, they will be going to local schools to introduce this unknown art form to the youth of today. There will be workshops for the local dance companies held by Australian choreographer Tim Podesta.

The performance at City Hall will be free to invited students from local schools and universities and the performance at the National Theatre, on the 4 June 2016, will be a charity performance with all proceeds going to 'Our Fathers Kitchen '. A charity that feeds nearly 200 impoverished children, many who are HIV positive, on a daily basis. For many of the children this is their only meal of the day. The dancers will be spending a morning helping to serve the children their daily meal, a humbling experience for these famous artists.

Introducing the host Angela Malan
Angela Malan was born in South Africa. At the age of 16 she was awarded scholarships to study at the National Ballet School of Canada and Scuola di Danza Firenze, Italy . After completing her scholarships she joined the National Ballet of Canada where she stayed for 5 years. On returning to South Africa she joined PACT Ballet and became 1 of 3 Principal Ballerinas. In 2001, when the South African government stopped all funding to the arts, she along with 6 other dancers founded JoBurg Ballet, formerly known as South African Ballet Theatre. She became the Senior principal ballerina and ballet mistress. Angela, an internationally acclaimed ballerina and teacher, now resides in Addis Ababa Ethiopia and returns quarterly to South Africa to teach and perform as an invited guest. Please contact Angela Malan at +251935998760 or David Kennedy (U.S. Embassy) at +251 93004014 if you would be interested in featuring this story on your media.